Critical reviews (by Lutheran pastors, educators and church musicians) of books and other resources for Christian use from a perspective rooted in Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions and good common sense. We ask, "Is it worth the money to buy, the time to read and study, the shelf space to store, and the effort to teach?"

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Pulpit Review: Church Fathers for the Three-Year

I love reading the Church Fathers. We at QBR have focused on them through various introductions to their theology and works and modern collections of their works as commentary on Scripture. Today we highlight a book that will help you in the Pulpit.

Now, the fathers of the church speak from across the ages each week: The Fathers on the Sunday Gospels
provides rich reflections on every Sunday gospel reading in the
three-year Lectionary from Augustine, Bede, Ambrose, Gregory the Great,
Aelred, John Scotus Erigena, Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, and many more.
This unique volume will prove to be an invaluable companion for
preachers and for personal reflection on the Sunday gospels. It is also
an ideal gift for ordination and anniversaries of priesthood.

Stephen
Mark Holmes is a priest of the Diocese of Edinburgh in the Scottish
Episcopal Church and a doctoral candidate in the Edinburgh University
School of Divinity. He previously studied at the University of St.
Andrews; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; and the Maryvale Institute,
Birmingham; and has taught in Birmingham and Edinburgh. For eighteen
years he was a Benedictine monk at Pluscarden Abbey in northern
Scotland, where he was novice master, and he is now assistant priest at
Old St. Paul's Church, Edinburgh. He is the author of a number of books
and articles on the fathers of the church and church history.
(Publisher's website)

Why should you get and read this book? Holmes takes the great wealth of patristric preaching on historic pericopes and rearranges them for how and when they show up in the post-Vatican II three-year lectionary.

This is a volume used by users of the Roman Lectionary, RCL, the Common Worship Lectionary of the Church of England, but especially for our purposes, the three-year lectionary of Lutheran Service Book. We are on our own, however, for patristic quotes for the Festival of the Reformation.

Brief biographies are found in the back. Usable, practical, historic, and Biblical, faithful Lutheran preachers will find more benefit than bane in The Fathers on the Sunday Gospels.

The
Rev. Paul J Cain is Pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan,
Wyoming, Headmaster of Martin Luther Grammar School, Yellowstone Circuit
Visitor (LCMS Wyoming District), a member of the Board of Directors of
The Consortium for Classical and Lutheran Education, Wyoming District
Worship Chairman, and Editor of QBR.

Contributors and Reviewers are identifiedat the end of each signed article or review.

Note:Unsolicited titles will be considered for review based on the time our volunteer reviewers have available,how interested we believe our readers would be in the unsolicited resource in The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod.

FTC Regulations Compliance

Disclosure of Material Connection: LBR received these books or other resources free from the publisher. We were not required to write a positive review. The opinions we have expressed are our own.

While every effort was made to be as accurate and objective as possible, inevitably, the opinions of the authors of various articles and reviews will surface, and individually, we take full responsibility for them. Opinions expressed are those of the individual contributors, and may not necessarily reflect that of the LCMS, the Wyoming District, or LBR.